Grass-Fed Goats and more

Around noon ago I heard a noise out back and then Roy the Collie stared barking furiously. It turned out that a limb on the left hand side of our ancient, dead hickory tree had broken off. Then, about 20 minutes later, I heard a short burst of furious barking then a grand thump and crunch. It’s been stormy today, but mostly rain not a lot of wind — guess it just got too waterlogged and heavy. The tree is dead. Long live the tree. No animals were harmed in the making of the death of this tree. We have for awhile been concerned about goats getting hurt when that tree came down. But upon reflection, it was highly likely that it would come down in a storm, and goats are *never* outside in a storm! The tree is hollow so we cannot count the rings, but it seems likely that this tree was over 100 years old.